Surudoi Sasakure by ChoQMay (Album Review) ▸ J-Music Exchange/Rate
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Welcome back to yet another installment of the J-Music Exchange/Rate segment! In case you’re not familiar with what this is about: this is a thing I’ve been doing with my good friend/fellow Japanese music fan Leap250 where both of us pick out an album from our music libraries, exchange them, listen to them and later review on our respective blogs. We’ve been doing this whole project for the past three years now, and while this has been a great opportunity for both of us to share music and widen our personal musical tastes, we hope that this also helps you find some cool new albums/artists to check out. Definitely go take a peek at my dedicated page for it to discover some new stuff and/or to see if we’ve reviewed an album that you’ve listened to before!
And as always, Leap and I come up with a specific theme each month, as a fun (and easy) way for us to pick out our album choices. It was Leap’s turn for the month of October, and to slightly relate to the spooky themes of the Halloween season, he thought it’d be cool to talk about albums that have given us chills/goosebumps. While I don’t think I’ve ever listened to an album that’s considered ‘scary’, I certainly have gotten the chills or goosebumps whenever I listen to a song that is really good. Whether it’s because of an incredible vocal performance or a particular melody that just hits the right spot, the way we react physically when hearing music is a pretty interesting concept to think about.
That said, here are our choices: Leap went ahead and tossed over Surudoi Sasakure from rising J-pop band ChoQMay, while I (finally) gave him Koko Base by the wonderful and ultra popular voice actress Hanazawa Kana.
Let’s jump right in!
ChoQMay (チョーキューメイ) is a 4-piece Japanese pop band consisting of Rei (Vo/Gt/Vn), Renpi (Key), Fujii Gon (Ba) and Kuga Kouichirou (Dr). The group began to come together at the beginning of 2020 after Rei graduated high school. She planned on attending music school; however because of the then-immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, she had to wait until establishments could open back up again. In the meantime, as a way to achieve her goal of making a name for herself in the music world, Rei decided to gather members to form a band, which then ended up becoming what we now know as ChoQMay. The group made their first live appearance later that year, September 15th, at the Shimokitazawa Daisy Bar.
A few singles and EP releases later, ChoQMay would eventually garner a lot of attention with their song, “3-gatsu no Hanayome”, as it became an instant hit due to its inclusion in the 2022 TV drama Ase to Sekken. Additionally, a track off their first album (Surudoi Sasakure), titled “Anata no Koibito ni Naritai”, became a massive trend on social media, with it being used in over 52,000 TikToks and gaining over 22 million total views.
As of when this post is published, ChoQMay has released two studio albums, nine singles and two EPs.
Tracklist
Oyasumi Papa Mama / おやすみパパママ
Reincarnation / リンカーネーション
She Side Blue /
Anata no Koibito ni Naritai / 貴方の恋人になりたい
3-gatsu no Hanayome / 3月の花嫁
Yuu (Surudoi Sasakure) / ユウ(するどいささくれ)
Taimu Kapuseru / たいむかぷせる
Karyudo / 狩人
Mizuumi ga Mieta! / 湖が見えた!
Omukae ga Kita yo / お迎えがきたよ
Released: 2022.05.31
In as beneficial as their song “Anata no Koibito ni Naritai” blowing up the way it did on social media was for the band’s fame and notoriety, a part of me does feel that it might have done a bit of disservice to ChoQMay as well. Of course, having a viral hit under your belt is not something a lot of bands and artists can lay claim to, and the opportunities provided by the exposure that comes along with it is generally a good thing (at least for however long they can leverage it).
However, after listening to Surudoi Sasakure, the eventual album that “Anata no Koibito ni Naritai” would be part of, I came to two realizations. The first is that the song, becoming as popular of a singsong-y tune as it has, has more than likely led to a misconception of how ChoQMay actually sounds. More so since you just hear a portion of it whenever it pops up on IG or TikTok. After going through the album just once you’ll be quick to note that that song is actually a bit of an outlier to the more widely diverse and eclectic style that the band has, which feature influences of Jazz and Classical music as you’ll hear in tracks like “Reincarnation” and “Omukae ga Kita yo”. Speaking of, my second realization with regard to this album is that the Classically-trained violinist/vocalist Urara is much MUCH more capable than the singsong-y tune of “Anata no Koibito ni Naritai” would suggest. The way she bends and breaks her voice in tracks like “Yu (Surudoi Sasakure)” and “Karyuudo”, almost as if she is playing it as an instrument, is simply breathtaking.
1 ▸ fascinating compositions
Just like many other people, I first heard about ChoQMay through the great lands of TikTok. Given that one of their songs, “Anata no Koibito ni Naritai”, became a huge hit and was being used in a ton of videos earlier in the year (whether it was the original track or the one variation where it got the sped-up treatment), it was hard not to stumble upon this group and their music. And from my perspective, I could definitely understand what the hype was all about. That song is incredibly catchy and nice to listen to with its bouncy piano, steady tempo, light-hearted lyrics and Rei’s ability to change vocal pitches on the fly. And while I’d say that the melodies and its overall context are all worthy of making TikToks over, apart from that, it is a pretty addicting track.
And like many of the albums I’ve reviewed in the past, being exposed to the one or two viral tracks from a particular artist can certainly help you get a good sense of what their music is like and what you can expect from their other works. That said, I feel like the same can apply to ChoQMay with their 2022 full album release, titled Surudoi Sasakure.
A better way to explain this is that, similar to what was heard in “Anata no Koibito ni Naritai”, I feel like there are two main takeaways I got from listening to this record: their emphasis on instrument composition/combinations and Rei’s strong and captivating vocals. While these two aspects are certainly not the only things within Surudoi Sasakure that are worth discussing or praising, I just thought that they were super prominent and things that I couldn’t help but base my review on.
First of all, I enjoyed a lot of the compositions heard throughout this album. Right from the jump, in the literal first second, “Oyasumi Papa Mama” immediately reels you in with its sudden burst of energy, and the deep percussion and light tambourine makes it consistently engaging to listen to. “3-gatsu no Hanayome” exerts a very appropriate spring-like vibe, thanks to the lively energy it gives off through its overall fast pace, subtle-but-tasteful inclusion of a violin and the impressive combination of instruments that are heard to make it an enjoyable song. The unique nature of all these different instruments coming together, or taking the usual ones and playing them in a completely new way compared to what was heard in the previous song, definitely was interesting and it honestly did feel like you were in for a fairly different experience within each track.
And when it comes to instruments, I do believe that ChoQMay really shined when it came to incorporating piano elements into their music. The way they were able to use and express that piano sound in many, many different ways was awesome to listen to; whether it was in “She Side Blue’‘ where the melody appropriately felt like one you could hear when taking in the ocean breeze/environment, or the gorgeous performance shown in the album version of “Yuu” where the pace or intensity of the piano beautifully matched up with Rei’s vocals. It’s definitely something that I loved hearing throughout this album, and I could tell that they really know how to take advantage of the piano and do a good job conveying its sound, no matter what genre they’re performing.
And to kinda reiterate some of the things I’ve been talking about: I started to realize that it was a bit difficult trying to pinpoint what genre or style of music ChoQMay was trying to convey here. Sure, I will probably put most of the blame on myself since I always do have some trouble connecting songs to a particular music style. But even ChoQMay themselves have admitted (via an interview they did with Real Sound) that they don’t really pay much attention to specifically determining the kind of music they make. Frontwoman Rei stated that the band came together without a clear idea of what genre they’re aiming for, and instead was open to having/incorporating different perspectives and tastes into their works.
And yeah, I would certainly say that what is heard on Surudoi Sasakure is very evident of that. Many of the songs on this album honestly do vary from one another such as the odd + energetic vibe heard in “Taimu Kapuseru”, compared to “Karyudo” and its more traditional, Amazon-inspired sound. And while I wouldn’t necessarily consider this as a bad thing (at least, not in this case), it might be something to note when experiencing this album for yourself.
2 ▸ rei’s incredible (but slightly weary) vocals
But the funny thing is… as much as I just talked about this album’s compositions and styles being fairly unique from each other, the vocals honestly felt the opposite.
Again, not saying this is a negative thing. I think Rei is a phenomenal singer and ever since I first heard of ChoQMay, I’ve very much enjoyed listening to the way she sings. In fact, I’ll say/predict that this was the reason why Leap chose this album for this month’s Exchange/Rate theme, and if that was the case, I can totally see why. Her strong and passionate tone works really well with a lot of the tracks heard on this album, and her ability to change the intensity of her vocals when needed was actually something that I couldn’t help but to appreciate.
That said (and I believe I’ve told Leap this in the past), I genuinely would equate Rei’s vocal styling to that of ZUTOMAYO (I’m sure there are much better comparisons but that’s the one that I kept coming to lol). Both seem to really put their all into singing and constantly exert a great amount of passion that is hard not to be impressed by… however, throughout my more recent listen-throughs with Surudoi Sasakure, I will admit that Rei’s vocals eventually started to sound same-ish. ZUTOMAYO, in my opinion, also suffers from this problem (even if I absolutely loved Hisohiso Banashi) and while I won’t say that this was a make-or-break issue (in both cases), I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t feel a tad bit repetitive at some point. Definitely not blaming, nor am I shaming Rei or ChoQMay about this, but rather, it’s just a small flaw that could certainly be tweaked in their future releases.
I think for the most part, I enjoyed Surudoi Sasakure. While I do believe that there was some sense of ‘rawness’ within this album (similar to what Leap has said about other initial releases from artists; e.g. tonari no Hanako, Arika), this was certainly a good representation of who ChoQMay is and the style of music that they strive to show off. Their use of various instruments and combining them in many different ways, as well as the impressive vocal performances from the group’s frontwoman Rei, were all impressive displays of the band’s talent and the potential they have as an up-and-coming pop unit. Obviously, striking gold in the social media landscape with one of their songs certainly helped put them on the map but after getting to hear what else ChoQMay has to offer, I think it made me even more excited to see where they go from here.
Rating: 8/10
Aaaand that’s all I got for you today!
This month’s been a little busy for me, so I apologize if this review wasn’t as intricate as some of the other ones I’ve written. Still, hopefully you enjoyed it and definitely go check out some of ChoQMay’s other stuff! Such as this really nice track:
That said, now that you’re done here, go head on over to Leap’s blog where he talked about the album I gave him this month: Koko Base from Hanazawa Kana! This is one that I’ve been wanting to give him ever since we rebooted this segment, so I’m excited to see what he thinks about it. Click here to read his review!
Lastly, my next post will include a pretty major announcement regarding the blog, so please do stay tuned! (will probably put it out by the end of the month) 👍
Thanks for reading!! :D
-al